No Education
by Afiach
Summary: Alison Paisley is dumped unwillingly into the Order through a series of crazy events. Now working with her new partner, a certain Sirius Black, can she remain platonic, or become totally unprofessional and throw caution to the wind? SB/OC, possible RL/OC
1. Chapter 1 The Cheat

"So do you think it's a cake, or a biscuit?"

Moo waved the Jaffa Cake in front of my eyes, attempting to gain my attention. I stared blankly at it. I was familiar with muggle food – the kind you could only buy with foreign pounds and pence inside gigantic supermarkets. Moo often had a large stash of yummy treats as she knew how to operate the muggle machines with ease.

"Alley?" she called.

I snatched the Jaffa Cake from her hand and stuffed it into my mouth whole. I felt consoled by its chocolate covering, and zingy orange centre. But it could never mend my broken heart. But perhaps a second Jaffa will…

"Moo!" I wailed finally, sobbing hard. "The bastard cheated on me! What have I done to deserve this?" I flung my upper half into her lap, my head resting heavily on her thigh and her hand rubbing my back. My torn emotions were making me feel ill so I childishly shoved the Jaffa Cakes away from me and reached out for the Firewhisky.

I guess I'm not ready to be an adult yet.

"Nothing Alley, you're a sweetie," Moo whispered. She had been my best friend since the first day at Hogwarts when we both stumbled into the same train compartment. It helped that we were both sorted into Ravenclaw too. We're practically inseparable, except for when Moo has to work. Not that I didn't have a job to attend to, but her's is so much more important than mine. Moo is a full time Auror, an elite member of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement of the Ministry of Magic trained to capture Dark wizards and witches. It was a powerful and dangerous job beyond my comprehension. "Why don't you come downstairs?"

Downstairs?

God, I had almost forgotten. I had completely crashed the Order Meeting with my hysterics not more than an hour ago, how embarrassing.

For Moo mainly. I didn't really know anybody in that room downstairs so I couldn't say that I felt humiliated by my actions.

Moo had just recently been sent on some top secret mission for the Order, and asked that I joined, or at least come along to see what it was all about. She made it sound like some sort of therapy group. But I really had no idea.

I didn't want to go downstairs again.

Loud thumping could be heard clambering up the stairs, which followed through by a quick burst from the doorway. Some woman, in an apron, marched into the room. I lifted my head up to get a better view. Talk about flaming red hair…

"Moila, there you are darling!" she said in a firm voice. "You're missing the meeting." She stayed, staring at Moo pointedly. And for emphasis added, "It's _important_."

"Sorry Moo," I sniffed, "I'll be down in a minute." I felt guilty for keeping her from the _important_ meeting.

She gave me a small smile and patted my back. "And for God's sake Alley, don't call me Moo in front of my friends, m'kay?"

I ignored her whilst wandering off, further into the room towards the mirror. I looked a mess, my shaggy blonde hair escaping from the ponytail, but there was nothing I could do about it. I hadn't exactly planned rushing out of the flat, crying hysterically because I had just found my boyfriend in bed with the pretty brunette witch from next door. I wasn't even sure if I had the ability to apparate back without splinching myself.

Eventually I scuffled my feet downstairs, ignoring the house elf heads that hung on the wall. The house, now that I was paying attention to it, looked grim. It was dark and filthy. The cobwebs themselves were now vacant and gathering dust. At the bottom of the stairs I noticed a pair of curtains, covered in years of grime and dirt. It was unusual because I was so sure there wasn't a window behind them.

I reached out, ready to pull back the curtains to take a peek when I tripped over an umbrella stand that I hadn't noticed making a loud clattering noise. Before I could even bend to pick the stand up the curtains flew open, revealing a painting, and started screaming.

"MUDBLOODS! FILTHY MUDBLOODS IN MY HOUSE!"

I jumped at the volume of her voice, and didn't hear a door open near the end of the corridor. The woman in the portrait was absolutely terrifying. Her face, which may once have been very beautiful, was contorted into an ugly, wrinkled frown. Her clothes were dark and looked expensive, a glistening amber jewel decorating the lapel of her tight-fitting jacket and a large ring to match on her angrily pointing finger.

As if being dumped was bad enough, a dead woman from a portrait was screaming shrilly at me from her canvas.

"BLOOD TRAITORS! MUDBLOODS…!" the painting didn't finish as her disgusting words were already burning my ears.

"WHAT!?" I shouted hysterically, "I'M PUREBLOOD YOU SILLY OLD HAG!" My hand flew to my wand pocket and I thrust the slender piece of wood into the painting. "AND DON'T YOU EFFING START WITH THIS BLOOD TRAITOR NONSENSE; I'M GOING TO HEX YOU INTO OBLIVION!"

"BLOOD TRAITORS! IN MY HOUSE!" the painting screamed again and again.

I thrust my wand more viscously at the painting, which only caused the woman to scream louder.

"GOOD, I'M GLAD MY PRESENCE ANNOYS YOU!" I shouted petulantly at the painting. "I'M A BLOOD TRAITOR THROUGH AND THROUGH! DAMN PROUD!"

Angry red sparks flew out of my wand and they lit up the dark hallway. I could the woman in the painting better now. She didn't look happy. I took great satisfaction in realizing that she was looking a little worse from the wear and tear of the canvas.

"WHY YOU LITTLE IGNORANT B.."

I didn't get to hear the rest as the curtains were tugged firmly shut. I could still hear the woman's shouts and screams, but they were muffled and no longer seemed to bother me.

However I was now acutely aware that there had been an audience to my screaming match with the painting.

Moo was standing, with about seven or eight other wizards and witches, holding back tears of laughter. A couple of boys, who appeared identical, had the largest of smug grins plastered on their faces.

Moo moved forward slowly, "Alley, sweetheart I know you're upset but," she put her hand soothingly on my wand arm, "I don't think arguing with painting," she giggled a little as she said this, "is going to help matters much."

Feeling my face heat up with embarrassment I lowered my wand. I puffed out a little, pulled back shoulders back and held my head up high.

"It okay Moo," I said stiffly, "I don't know what got into me." I stared down the other wizards and witches surrounding her.

Then I remembered a brief encounter with a painting of goblins on the fifth floor at Hogwarts. If anything I blushed a little deeper but then decided to salvage the situation.

"You know what I'm like; it's not the first time." I saw Moo raise one eyebrow quizzically.

I answered, "That poor Goblin painting on fifth floor hasn't been the same since we had a slight disagreement in our third year." I gave her a cheeky, knowing look. "That dead old hag doesn't even know the half of it," I said, jerking my thumb back towards the painting. She must have heard because the screaming got louder.

Moo laughed, it was a sweet tinkling sound that made me smile broadly. It's been a while since I last heard it.

"Well this painting isn't just any old goblins."

I turned to see that the man who had shut the curtains was now talking. He was tall, a little on the thin side and devilishly handsome. I watched his lips move and suddenly became extremely horrified by the next words he spoke.

"That was my mother."


	2. Chapter 2 Did you find the Firewhisky?

**CHAPTER TWO - DID YOU FIND THE FIREWHISKY?**

I had been invited to dinner by the flaming red head, which I later found out is called Molly Weasley. Moo quietly told me that "she's a force to be reckoned with." Which is why I found it hard to say no to the dinner invitation. I didn't really want to go home, and face the terrible cheating boyfriend (now ex), but I didn't really wanted to spend time with the Order either. I liked to stay well out of affairs that only really included powerful witches and wizards. Ignorance for me would always be bliss. Besides, if I took it all so seriously I'm pretty sure I'd end up having a mental break down. Very bad wizards were doing very bad things. I didn't want to think about it!

I'm also struggling to count the amount of red heads at the table. There had to be at least five. I tried squinting and staring but they kept moving and I just looked silly in the end. My heart thumped wildly a couple of times as I noticed the man, the one who's mother I argued with not more than an hour ago, staring openly at me. His grey eyes gazed unbroken even as he piled mashed potatoes on his plate. I had tried to apologize for fighting with his mother not long after the incident, even though I didn't want to, but instead he gave me an inquisitive glare and a simple pat on the back before waving off my apologies. But now he was just staring, which honestly is a bit creepy.

I stared right back at him, hoping to unnerve his unblinking gaze. No such luck, but the more I looked the more familiar the man became. I felt as though perhaps we had maybe already met, or I had at least seen him before somewhere. Something just wasn't clicking in my mind.

Giving up, I looked at my plate. There was lots of food there, but I didn't feel like eating so I settled on a few mouthfuls to be polite and just drank my pumpkin juice instead. Moo distracted me by asking if I wanted an Alley-Moo Bath. I nodded enthusiastically. She gave me a little knowing smile, and held up five fingers.

"Just give me five minutes and we'll get started."

I waited. Around the table there were plenty of other faces I didn't recognize. The red heads I had learnt were a family called the Weasleys. The twins, Fred and George (I had no idea which was which) I had been warned were troublemakers. The warning also stretched as far as to say not to accept _anything,_ under any circumstance, from these boys. This included sweets. I took the warning to heart and had been glad to discover that Moo and I were sitting at the opposite end of the table to the twins. The man-with-the-bad-mother was sat nearby talking to a sandy haired man who hadn't introduced himself.

However, much to my own excitment, Moo had introduced me to Harry Potter and his two best friends, Ronald Weasley (now was this six redheads?) and Hermione Granger. Okay, I admit I'm not very interested in his friend. But it's _the_ Harry Potter! I nearly peed myself when I found out. I struggled to stop myself from asking for his autograph, so instead I stared, grinning stupidly at the boy completely awestruck. Every so often I would catch a small glimpse of the lightening-shaped scar on his forehead, and my stomach flip-flopped nauseatingly as I thought about how he got that scar.

Suddenly Moo was grabbing my hand and pulling me away from the table. I said my thanks to Molly Weasley and waved to goodbye to everyone even though I didn't know who they were. At my last count, there were six red heads.

Moo led me to her room at the end of the upstairs hallway; she gave me a little wink and then shoved me inside. I gaped at her.

She had transfigured the room into a plush, luxury bedroom which wouldn't have looked out of place in a five star hotel. The carpet was soft, the bed was huge and a spied discretely the biggest bath tub I had ever seen in the en-suite. I ran over excitedly the large, claw-foot tub could seat about four people comfortably. I plugged the three drains and turned on all the six faucets.

"Peach or apple?"

"Peach!"

I dumped in peach bubble bath and some apple bath salts and watched the suds rise. The scent of the peach and apple made my mouth water. Suddenly I wanted food.

An Alley-Moo bath consisted of a huge tub, me and Moo in our underwear, bathing, lots of Firewhisky and jelly tots. It's a tradition between us. We stripped down to our undies and took a soak. It was like relaxing at a spa with your best girl and not pervish in any way.

"Oh, I should have grabbed some Firewhisky or something," Moo said as she climbed into the tub.

"No worries, I'll get it," I said just before racing out of the bedroom with intentions of getting some chocolate or jelly tots too if I could find any.

"Alley, let's go crazy!" Moo called from upstairs. "Grab the wine too!"

I shoved the doors to the bedroom wide open and felt myself almost throw up in shock.

Two men stood there. One was the man with the crazy mother, and I didn't recognize the sandy-haired man. He might have been at table during dinner but I was so busy counting red heads that I never noticed. They both stared at me with shock and I swear I almost peed. I literally cried aloud and dropped to my knees behind the giant bed.

One of them spoke, "I'll err…just go and find Molly." I heard footsteps shuffle along the carpet, and then the creaking sound of the bedroom door opening and closing.

"Merlin," I moaned pounding my fist on the floor. "This is the most humiliating moment of my entire life. I walk in here like some kinda… some kinda…" my voice trailed off and the bedroom fell quiet. Was he still there? I peeked around the corner and saw his black shoes.

"Why aren't you leaving?"

"Well, um, I need to speak with Moila...." He wanted to talk to Moo? Damn, we're in the middle of something here! Can he understand that? He seen enough surely to understand that we are busy! This couldn't get anymore embarrassing.

"Um…" he began.

"Look, I don't normally walk around in my underwear exposing myself to complete strangers, okay?"

"No, I didn't think you did."

"Why are you still here?" I demanded my voice growing hostile. The fact that he wasn't going to leave both scared and interested me. I hope he realized that I had my wand with me; I could fight him with one if he tried something funny. Then a new thought pushed through and I felt fear tug at my belly. I stood.

He blinked at me in surprise and then looked away.

"You thinkin' about all the ways you could twist this for the Weasley twins, hm? What did you have special magical hidden cameras somewhere? Do you want to get Moo in trouble? Do you think this is some sort of lesbian affair? Because we're not having an affair and we're not lesbians!"

"I know, you're her best friend Alison Paisley," the sandy-haired man said. "I know that Ms. Hart isn't a lesbian."

"Then why are you standing here?" And importantly, how did he know my name? Spies are absolutely everywhere these days! I need to go undercover.

"Look, I wanted to ask you something, but I didn't really know how to, or if it was even appropriate." We stared at each other for a moment or two. "I just wanted to know if Ms. Hart was okay."

I blinked.

_Holy crap! He was asking about Moo! He liked Moo!_

"She'll be fine," I smiled. "Thanks for asking errr...?" I didn't know his name. Damn.

"Remus Lupin" he supplied. Well no time like the present to introduce yourself to someone.

"Well Remus, I'll tell her you were concerned."

He nodded, and then left.

"Alley!" Moo's voice filtered through to the bedroom. "Did you find the Firewhisky?"

I couldn't keep the smile off my face as I replayed Remus Lupin's concern for my best friend in my mind. I liked him. I liked his genuine concern for Moo and I wanted them together. Moo deserved someone good and nice, someone that made her feel like a giddy school girl. Her latest man wasn't making her happy and I was positive that Remus could. Grinning stupidly I went into the bathroom and found Moo sitting in the tub surrounded by bubbles.

"What took so long?" Moo sighed as she stretched out her wet hand for the Firewhisky bottle. I watched the bubbles slide off her arm and smiled.

"I'll tell you later."

"So been picking fights with other objects in the house? At least you proved you could give as good as you got," she pointed out. The heat rose to my face once more as thoughts of being stupidly interlocked in an argument with a painting raced into my mind. I had acted like a fool afterwards. I prayed the bubbles covered my beetroot face.

"I saw Sirius looking at you too," she added.

"Who?" I gave her a puzzled look. Who was Sirius? Had we been introduced? There was a lot of people downstairs and don't really remember names well. The more I though about the faces around the table, each one going through my mind at a remarkable pace, my thoughts finally rested on the man with the crazy mother. Surely there were plenty of other wizards looking at me during dinner? I had, after all, been having an argument with a painting mere minutes before dinner. It isn't a common occurrence. They were all probably having a good laugh and joke about it, pointing at me behind my back whispering things like, 'Look there's the crazy woman who picks arguments with paintings!'

"Sirius Black" Moo said pointedly disrupting my thoughts, "You know it's his mother you were arguing with."

I sunk a little deeper into the tub. Mortified.

And terrified.

"Moo, he's a mass murderer!" I was worried now. "You hang out with murderers?" No wonder that woman in the painting was so damn grouchy, her son is a complete psycho!

"Alley, it's not what you think. He's innocent." She tried convincing me whilst dumping more apple scented bath salts into the hot water.

"They don't put innocent men in Azkaban, there were witnesses."

Moo sighed, the ends of her wet hair sticking liking glue to her slender arms, and leaned forward to grip me firmly on my shoulders.

"It's a long story." Her eyes were wide and truthful. Admitting a small defeat I sunk lower into the water. Sensing my submission, Moo let go.

"Well you better tell me quick." Because I want to run wildly from this house and as far away as possible. "He's already seen me in my undies."

"WHAT?!"

This was going to be a long bath.


	3. Chapter 3 Vocation

**CHAPTER 3 - MY VOCATION**

After my first night at Grimmauld Place, sleeping closely to Moo because I had been too scared to "face the creepy house alone", I walked into the kitchen and was immediately greeted by a cheerful voice. "Ah Miss Paisley, how wonderful to see you!"

I would have liked to have said the same thing back to Albus Dumbledore, but as the white bearded wizard's eyes twinkled at me I suddenly realized that the pleasure was all his because why would he be visiting me so early in the morning? He was sat at the kitchen table with Moo, Remus and Sirius Black. The conversation Moo and I had last night was still fresh in my mind and my eyes wandered anywhere but at Black. It had taken a while to convince me, and several glasses of Firewhisky later Black's story about Peter Pettigrew's betrayal somehow made sense in the hazy, fuzzy whirl of my drunken mind. It didn't mean I had to like the guy.

Mrs Weasley was busying herself making tea and coffee behind them. Judging by Moo's mischievous smile and the way Remus avoided my gaze, it was obvious that they had just been talking about me. If that wasn't enough evidence, Dumbledore's next words were.

"We've just been talking about you." He said, winking at me.

Dumbledore is one of the few people I genuinely like, which is a surprise. Often I find myself indifferent to a lot of people, always polite but really lacked to social skills and motivation to really get to know somebody, even co-workers. Occasionally I disliked someone immediately, and tended to avoid their company altogether. However it was hard not to like Albus Dumbledore within an instant of meeting him.

"All good I hope," I said sitting down at the table beside Moo but opposite Dumbledore. No sooner had I sat down, Mrs Weasley had placed a cup of coffee in front of me. Looking pointedly at the oldest wizard in the room, I suddenly became very intrigued to hear what had been said about myself in my absence.

"Of course Miss Paisley, I wouldn't dream of saying a bad word about you." He smiled. Well of course he wouldn't say anything bad, I'd hex his right ear off before he could finish the sentence. Well, I'd try to anyway.

"We were just discussing what a talented and accomplished young witch you are." Dumbledore continued, "And how you have yet to find your vocation in life."

I looked at Moo, who nodded zealously in agreement, before eyeing Dumbledore carefully. What he said wasn't lies. Of course it was a matter of opinion if I was 'talented' or 'accomplished'. I finished Hogwarts with highest grades possible in all my chosen subjects. I practiced spells until they were perfect and a large majority of them are non-verbal to boot. What I lacked in gorgeous good looks I made up for in magical prowess. Hexes and jinxes are definitely my strong point, but my thin patience made it difficult for me to concentrate at Potions. Never mind waiting months to actually brew certain potions. Potions, I felt, is a lot like cooking. And I'm crap at cooking. Couldn't even boil an egg until recently.

However it was Dumbledore's blatant mention of my career, or lack of, that got me on edge. I work a couple of days a week at Ministry of Magic in the Department of Magical Transport. I help, alongside Madam Edgecombe, at the Floo Regulation Office. It's not glamorous, but it pays and that's enough for me. If I really applied myself I could become head of department, but it isn't exactly my dream job.

"My vocation Professor?" I repeated. Suddenly I knew where this conversation was leading to.

"Whilst the Department of Magical Transport is a fantastic place to work, I can't help wonder that your talents," he paused, "how can I say this?" and again he paused but this time more thoughtfully, "Aaah, that your talents are wasted in such a department?" I stared at him for a while. Mrs Weasley was now tutting in the background about the filth in the front room of the house. She then left room, but I could hear her calling out children's names, demanding that they help clean.

"Are you suggesting what I think you are suggesting?" I asked.

"If you think I am suggesting you reconsider my last offer, then you are correct." His blue eyes twinkled again. But I just groaned in response and let my head fall to the table with a small _thump_.

"Please Alley, we'd love for you to join, wouldn't we guys?" Moo's voice implored to me, and I looked up to find everybody at the table nodding apart from Black. Another _thump_, but this time under the table and he too was nodding although not as enthusiastically. I eyed him, glaring. But turned my attention swiftly to Moo, her large brown eyes doe-like and pleading. I tried to focus elsewhere, on the kettle specifically but her look only intensified and I felt its presence acutely. I couldn't ignore her long. Especially when she reached out and held my hand on the table, giving it a quick but reassuringly firm squeeze.

I sighed, defeated. "What exactly is it I have to do?" I asked.

"Not much," replied Dumbledore, "Just risking your life for the greater good, taking a stance opposing a very dark, and powerful wizard and protecting others."

This didn't sound like my dream job either. Words such as 'risk', 'dark' and 'powerful' jumped out at me. I knew what Dumbledore was asking of me. He wanted me to finally take a side and fight. Of course it would always be the Order's side I would stand for and protect, my brief encounter with Black's mother proved that. But I didn't want to throw myself into a fight which I had no part to play in, or at least one which I didn't want to participate. But as Moo so conveniently pointed out the first time Dumbledore asked, the war is upon us and the outcome whether I fought or not would affect me profoundly. This is a truth I dare not contemplate.

I stared at Moo, taking in the sight of her. Glossy blonde hair, but a mere slip of a girl. She truly is tiny and fragile looking. But here she was, risking her life against witches and wizards who were ten times bigger and more powerful. If Moo could do it, then so can I.

"So, where do I sign up?" I smiled ruefully at Dumbledore, making it sound like I wanted to join the local chess club or something, but definitely not the Local Anti-Voldermort campaign. Obviously the Order is much more important than the LAVC.

Moo squealed happily, jumping and hugging me exclaiming "I knew you'd join!" Remus grinned and clapped a couple of times to congratulate me. Black guffawed loudly but nevertheless seemed happier than moment ago knowing that there was now somebody else risking their life out there in the big bad World. Or maybe he just wanted to see me argue once more with his mother, for amusement's sake.

"Well Miss Paisely, I shall return later tonight to fully explain your duties, but for now I will leave you to enjoy this rather fine weather we've been having lately." Dumbledore gazed out of the kitchen at the blue, cloudless sky as he said this. He then said his goodbyes to everybody and promptly left through the backdoor.

I found myself daydreaming of going outside when Molly Weasley came rushing into the kitchen not long after Dumbledore's departure, red faced and clearly agitated. "Sirius," she said in a demanding tone that reminded me of Professor McGonagall, "We need to sort out the doxy infestation you've got in the house."

Black didn't seemed bothered. However the thought of having the little biting fairies called doxies anywhere near me caused my skin to crawl. I had once been bitten by the black furred pests, its tiny venomous teeth scratching at the delicate surface on my hand. Mrs Weasley was still talking about the doxies. Unconsciously I started to rub my left hand. I had been eight at the time, hiding behind the curtains when the doxies got me. Mum had been furious discovering the infestation and I had to be carted off to St Mungo's to receive an antidote.

"Sure, we'll help Molly!" Moo said grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the drawing room. I did want to help? I didn't remember saying I would. In the background I could hear Black and Mrs Weasley's voices getting louder, then the scrape of chairs on the tiled floor and heavy thumping footsteps behind Moo and I.

"Moila you are a sweetie," Mrs Weasley said, beaming at Moo, "And you too Alison," she added. I didn't really want to help, but as I was thrust forward into the dinning room a flash of bright purple whisked before my eyes.

On the floor a red head struggled with a set of purple robes which seemed to have a mind of its own. "Geeerooff!" he grunted, "It's trying to sodding stra…" he breathed heavily, gasping for air. I recognized the boy as Ron Weasley, but he was still rolling around on the carpet, knocking things over and sending objects flying. "Arrgh!" he shouted, still squirming and fighting. Before I had even reached my wand Black had pushed past me and started to drag the purple robes off Molly's son. I watched dumbfounded as Black tore at the robes, flinging them into a bin. The boy on the floor was left gasping and rubbing his neck.

Merlin, was this room safe? I think the doxies are the least of my worries.

Glaring at every last inch of the room with suspicion, Mrs Weasley put Black, Moo and I to work on the draperies. I grabbed a large bottled of doxycide and began dousing the curtains viciously with the substance. I'm sure I didn't need to use this much, but I'll be damned if I'm bitten again. Plus I'd rather face to doxies than whatever Ron had been doing before I entered the room. I don't think I'd take being attacked by robes quite so graciously.

"Alley, I don't think you need to use _that_ much doxycide!" Moo exclaimed staring wide eyed at the curtains I was destroying. Snorting, I continued to cover the material with yet more doxycide. Satisfyingly I could hear the little; nasty, biting fairy-like creatures fall dead. Triumphantly I let out a short, sharp "HA!"

"I never liked these curtains anyway."

I swung round to see Black smirking at me. Well good, I agreed, I didn't like the curtains either. "See," I said to Moila, "I'm doing Black a favour." I moved towards the next curtain and with even more vigour than before continued to drench everything in the powerful doxycide.

"Please, just call me Sirius," he said. Without looking I replied, "Then I'm Alley."

"Like the Alley Kat?" he questioned.

I thought for a moment. Did I want to be stuck with this new nickname? I suppose it's better than Moo. I felt a little guilty towards to my friend.

"Yeah, just like the Alley Kat," I muttered, my words punctuated with every forceful spray of doxycide on the curtains. Satisfied that no doxy was left living, I watched Sirius carefully as he too attacked the curtains. He had a somewhat aristocratic air about him and his haughty good looks. Now that I'm paying attention to him, he definitely came across as handsome. At that thought I blushed deeply.

I shook my head, no doubt hoping to shake the image of a very handsome, naked Sirius out of my head. Merlin, what's wrong with me? I've only just finished one relationship, and I'm already lusting after a man with a ten thousand galleon price on his head. I must rebounding. Yeah, that's it. Rebounding. I've been cheated on, of course there would be some mental side effect.

I'm rebounding. I'm rebounding. I'm rebounding. Is that clear enough?

Yes. Clear. Very good Alley. I breathed slowly.

I looked at him again. Sirius was now shovelling dead doxies into a bin. Feeling my heart's pace quicken I decided that this infatuation had to end. But on the other hand I couldn't help but let my mind wander slightly…

I wonder what policies Dumbledore has about inter-work relationships. Surely he'd be all for it? I heard good 'ole Albus is a big fan of love.

My problem obviously was the fact that this wasn't love. I just hadn't seen very many handsome men in a while. The Department of Magical Transport didn't really attract the good looking types. I am a starved woman.

Later that night, as promised, Dumbledore returned. I was ushered into the newly cleaned drawing room by Moo and was surprised to find a large amount of people inside. We were welcomed inside, however I noticed that a lot of the occupants wore very grim smiles, if at all, and others appeared exhausted.

I recognized some, simply because they worked at the Ministry. There were plenty of Auroras, including Moody and Shacklebolt, alongside other wizards and witches from different departments. I, however, was the only one who worked at the Department of Magical Transport. We really were a spineless bunch on level six...

I sat down in a dusty armchair, with Remus on one side next to me and Moo on my other side. Talk about being a third wheel. Sirius I noticed was sitting directly opposite me, which I couldn't complain about. It's good for the soul to be looking at a nice view.

Dumbledore stood up, and the meeting began. Lots of the witches and wizards relayed information about Death Eater activity, they spoke of their suspicions of any ministry employees that could be under the Imperius Curse and generally attempted to guess at what Voldermort would do next. Nothing I heard during this meeting made me feel safe, or comfortable. I didn't like it. I wonder if I could un-sign myself from the Order?

"And finally, we have a new member," Dumbledore pointed me out to the rest of room, "Alison Paisley." I guess it was too late to back out now, people are looking at me.

"Alison will be working with Sirius looking for…" But whatever we were looking for I didn't hear. And this happened because of two reasons.

First, another man stood up and protested about letting Sirius Black leave Grimmauld Place. This caused a massive debate, and Sirius had leapt up from his chair, growling and pointing his wand at the man with the hooked nose.

The second reason was my own fault. As soon as I head mine and Sirius' names in the same sentence I just zoned out.


	4. Chapter 4 Crazy Toad Lady

**CHAPTER FOUR - CRAZY TOAD LADY**

Wow. That's all I could say to him. Animagus, really?

Well, wow.

"That's impressive." I said, shocked. "Really? Like a real animagus?"

"Yes," he leaned forward, "a _real_ animagus." Sirius Black smirked, obviously impressed with his own magical ability. Why that arrogant little ba…

"But that's beside the point; we won't catch him in his rat form." Sirius continued. This was a fact. If Peter Pettigrew, the man we were assigned to look for and then follow, spent most of his time as a rat we'd never find him.

"What about you?" I asked suddenly, my curiosity peaking, "What animal are you?"

"Isn't it obvious?" he questioned, smiling. Well no Black, it isn't obvious. I wouldn't be asking if it was. After a few moments silence he finally said "Dog."

And 'dog' was supposed to be obvious?

"You can't have been any good at Astronomy," he stated, leaning back into the armchair and relaxing. I blush a little. This was also a fact.

"Anyway, it doesn't matter if I don't know which end of a telescope is which. I need to know about Pettigrew."

Sirius grumbled some more, clearly not wanting to continue on this path of conversation. But considering that he had spent his Hogwarts years with the Death Eater, I felt Sirius should be the one to give me information on the dark wizard. It was also part of my cleverly designed plan to spend more time oogling at Sirius Black – the most handsome wizard in the Order. So far, it's working.

"Slytherin?" he asked out of the blue, a dark expression forming on his face.

"Err, no?" What is he on about? But he seemed pleased at my answer because his smile returned.

"Hufflepuff?"

"No way!" I cry out indignantly. I'm not a pansy, let's-take-the-moral-high-ground kind of person. I very rarely stand on moral high ground anyway. Sirius scrutinized me.

"Ravenclaw" I answered in reply to his unspoken question. He barked out, laughing a little.

"Really?" he said, sounding surprised. "I thought Ravenclaws were clever."

"We are!" I shout, standing up. Why I decided to get out of the armchair I have no idea. I was beginning to itch from all the dust I guess. "What are you trying to say?"

"You just don't seem like a Ravenclaw," he shrugged. But this only angered me.

"So on first impressions, I _seem_ like a Slytherin?" I spat the last word out with venom.

"No, no, no, no! That's not what I meant," Yes, yes, yes, yes that's exactly what you meant, I scolded him mentally. "It's just that you don't know _anything_ about stars, and you work in the Department of Magical Transport."

"It's a very important job! I do lots of things in the department" I argue back. Which was pointless, because let's face it, a flobberworm could do my job.

"Yeah sure whatever," he waved me off, "I just imagined, with everything Dumbledore said about you, that you'd be working somewhere else, doing something else."

"Like what?" I snapped.

"I don't know," he shrugged, "Department of Mysteries?"

"I wasn't talking about my career Black; I wanted to know what Dumbledore said." If Dumbledore is spreading rumours about me I needed to know. Especially if Sirius Black thinks I should work in the Department of Mysteries. What kind of nutter did he describe me as? Department of Mysteries, yeah right. Those Unspeakables are the weirdest and scariest people I had ever seen.

"Said you were one of his brightest students." And that merited a suggestion in career choice at the department of mysteries? I'm sure Dumbledore has plenty of bright students.

"He also said you were a bit…enigmatic." Ahh that would explain it.

"That was years ago," I sighed and then added "I grew out of it." I turned around and studied the room. It was large, and just as filthy and dusty as the other rooms. We were in the library, and it showed because every surface had books on it, and the four walls were lined with bookshelves. I made my way over to the nearest one, and pulled out a book.

Ironically enough the book was about stars and constellations. I flipped open the book, and noticed a couple of pages had been ear-marked. The first was about the Leo constellation, but it was the second page I came to that was interesting. It had a large map of stars called the Canis Major. I scanned it quickly and noticed the outlined shape of a dog standing almost upright. Then circled below was the name Sirius.

Aaaah, so it had been obvious. Just not to me. What kind of parents used a book about stars as a baby name book anyway?

The library door opened and Moo stepped in looking thoughtful, "Hey Sirius you wouldn't happen to know if there's a book in here called…"she stopped and looked at me, surprised.

"Alley, aren't you supposed to be at work?"

I shrugged, "I got the morning off."

"But its lunch time now," Moo pointed out. I looked around the room for a clock, but there wasn't one. I didn't have any reason not to believe Moo so I pulled out a small black leather pouch from my robes.

"Guess I better be off then." I walked over to the fireplace and poured some of the emerald green grains into my palm and threw them into the blazing fire. "I'll speak to you later Moo." She smiled and nodded before I turned to Sirius who waved goodbye before I could open my mouth. I mimicked him and stepped into the fire, and then walked into my office.

It's a small room, just big enough for my desk and a filing cabinet. The fireplace was decorated intricately with small phoenixes entwined with flames. It had been bewitched to sparkle emerald green making it look truly magical. To my knowledge, this was the only fireplace in the ministry that did sparkle.

My office door slammed open and Mary Edgecome burst through looking flustered.

"Alley, we've got trouble. There's some woman here wanting to see you about Hogwarts." Judging by the look on Mary's face I could tell she didn't like the woman. "And then somehow some Muggle fireplaces have been bewitched, don't ask me how" she added when I gave her a funny look, "but there are Muggles walking straight into the Ministry from their own homes. Total mess."

Merlin, I wonder how that happened? There's no way those fireplaces could have been opened to the magical community without us. It would have gone through this department. Oh crap…

"And your boyfriend is waiting outside too."

I jumped when she said this. Nick was here? What for? I didn't bother to correct Mary about him now being my ex-boyfriend. Instead I just told her to send in the woman. Mary nodded and rushed off.

I had only been gone the morning and already everything was in chaos. It's never normally this busy. Never to be honest. The Department of Magical Transportation is supposed to be a peaceful day at work, especially the Floo Network office (mine).

For the second time in two minutes my office door opened without anybody knocking. This has got to stop.

A short, squat woman whose overall appearance resembled a toad walked in. She had iron grey hair and small brown eyes. The green tweed outfit she wore only emphasised her toad-like qualities. I could easily see why Mary might dislike her, but I didn't truly understand why until she spoke.

"I would like to have all of the fireplaces at Hogwarts to be watched carefully at all times, and visitors not allowed to floo into the building." She glared at me, "This is of the utmost importance." She added.

Who the hell was this woman? She can't demand things like this!

"I'm sorry, but what do you mean by watched?" I asked.

"Every fireplace monitored for activity."

She wanted to spy on Hogwarts? Merlin…

"That can't be done I'm afraid. No floo activity is ever monitored." What would be the point in that anyway? We can't actually find out what people are saying to each other. Just names, times and where – no valuable information could be gathered spying on fireplaces.

"I have permission from the Minister himself," my eyebrows rose at this, "And as the Senior Under-Secretary, soon to be Professor and High Inquistor I demand that you monitor those fireplaces."

"I would need Dumbledore's permission to do that, as he is in charge of…."

"The Ministry is in charge of Hogwarts Miss Paisley, not Dumbledore," she cut across me. Shocked at her audacity and left with no choice I just nodded at her, complying.

"Thank you. Your co-operation is very much appreciated."

I should have told her that nobody could floo _in_ or _out _of Hogwarts except for emergencies, and even then it had to be done through my office. And only my office, through my sparkly fireplace so it could be recorded. However you could use the fireplaces to talk to each other, and staff could floo around the castle just never to anywhere outside of Hogwarts. But the woman left before I could regain use of my mouth.

Did Dumbledore know about this?

I briefly thought about my ex-boyfriend waiting outside. He can wait a bit more. I pulled out a quill and parchment from my desk drawer and scribbled a note, explaining about what the woman wanted. I set it aside and then wrote a brief letter to Moo, excited by my new gossip.

I got up and walked out of my office looking for a pair of owls. I walked past Nick without even looking and found a half a dozen barn owls hooting gleefully at Mary's desk.

"Mind if a borrow a couple of owls?" I asked her.

"Sure, sure. They're driving me nuts. Why they don't leave immediately I'll never know."

I eyed the bowl of dried fruit she always kept at her desk. Was this woman blind? Stupid maybe? I tied the notes to the owls and sent them off. Stalking back to my office I grunted at Nick, ordering him to follow me.

We both walked into my office. I sat down at my desk, and stared at him, waiting. Nick looked awkward standing near the fireplace, not once did he look me in the eyes. He wasn't very tall, but he had a powerful build which truthfully made him look a bit stocky. His jet black hair needed cutting, but other than that he looked just as handsome as the first day I met him.

"I've always like this fireplace you know." He said.

I snorted; he probably liked it better than me. Hell, _I_ liked it better than me.

"What do you want Nick? As you can see, it's busy today."

"I've been here all morning. Where have you been?"

Sirius came to mind quickly, irritated by his questioned I snapped at him. "Does it matter? What I do is _none_ of your business. Now why the fuck are you here?"

"You've blocked me out of the house. I need my stuff."

I sat and seethed. Nick was right. I'd spent a good hour casting charms around the house making sure that he could never get in again. And now he wanted his stuff back? Well too late.

"I've already burnt them." He looked shocked when I said this, but quickly smoothed out his facial expression to something neutral. His eyes flashed angrily. Of course I hadn't burnt them, but now that I thought about it…Suddenly I liked Nick about as much as I liked Mrs Black. None at all.

"Right. Okay." He said through gritted teeth.

"Anything else?" I snapped again. Nick shook his head and then left without another word. First crazy toad lady, then the un-charming ex and now some troublesome fireplaces. This was not a good day at work.


	5. Chapter 5 Closets and Mysteries

**CHAPTER FIVE - CLOSETS AND MYSTERIES**

Seeing Sirius Black sitting comfortably on the sofa in my lounge wasn't an unusual sight. Or at least it wasn't _now._ The first time it happened I nearly hexed his balls off - accidentally. I had walked straight from my office to my lounge tired and sluggish. But the moment I caught a glimpse of a figure sitting and holding what suspiciously looked like my favourite coffee mug, my breath hitched and my heart thumped wildly. Needless to say the battle had been fierce and much of my lounge had been destroyed in the process. Nothing a bit of magic couldn't fix though.

Sirius had mentioned something about feeling lonely – he had been grumbling at the time and I hadn't _quite_ understood what he was saying – and that somebody had gone back to Hogwarts, then something or other about a particularly nasty house elf. I was surprised to hear no mention of his mother, but deduced that Mrs Black really wasn't something _anyone_ wanted to talk about. Besides, I was too caught up in having a rather handsome man in my house to really question his motives as to why he was in my lounge.

Moo however had not been so easily distracted. Every time she saw him there I could have sworn I spied the beginnings of a fit in her demeanour.

"So do you know anything about it?"

I whipped my head round to find that Moo was actually sitting quite close to me, an expectant look in her eyes.

"Don't stupid, why would she know anything about that anyway?" Once again my head turned with sudden speed – I was going to get whiplash soon – to face Sirius.

Apparently Moo thinks I should know something, and Sirius believes I don't. I may have been slightly peeved at Sirius' lack confidence in my mental ability had it not been for the fact I was about to be caught not listening to my best friend.

"Of course she would," Moo cried indignantly, "Alley's the smartest witch I know." I could feel shame heating up my face. She was putting up a very good fight for my cause; I should have at least had the decency to listen.

"Does it matter?" I heard Remus grumble from across the room. He looked frustrated. "We need information on the Department of Mysteries that desperately I'd ask a hippogriff if I thought it knew how to get in there!"

Aaah, the Department of Mysteries was it? Thank you Remus! Except Moo seemed a little affronted by his outburst, couldn't be sure if it was the bit about being desperate – snort- or something about a hippogriff. But now that I mentioned to two in the same sentence…well, Merlin's saggy left nut!

I was laughing now, to myself, in a completely delusional manner. Finally, the expression on Moo's face brought my mind out of the gutter long enough to say, "Well actually, I do know how to get into the Department of Mysteries undetected."

"Really?" Moo squeaked, surprised. Sirius and Remus had now sat up and were paying very close attention.

"Yeah but blimey, why anybody would want to go down there?" I began, "It's an absolute nuthouse, have you _seen_ the things they keep down there? I had nightmares for weeks, especially about that tank full of weird stuff with tentacles…"

Judging by Moo's face, I'd say she'd just discovered I had three heads. Which of course, I didn't –

"How do you know what's in there?" she asked, grabbing my shoulders. I flinched at the memory.

"Well I was having a bad day," was all I supplied. Truthfully, by the time I finally learnt I had been trapped and wandering lost in the Department of Mysteries for the better part of twelve hours, it had turned into one of the worst days of my life. And don't even get me started on how I ended up there. Moo didn't look convinced. But Remus had suddenly brightened exclaiming, "Fantastic, wouldn't mind telling us how to get in there then? Especially about the undetected part."

"Ah well you see there's this little catch on the door, you wouldn't know it was there unless you looked close enough -" I stopped. "Why do you want to get in there anyway?"

Suddenly confronted with my questioning and curiosity, both Moo and Remus were backing away from me like I had the plague, muttering things like "Ahh well you see" and "Not sure if we could tell you." Just like Sirius and I had been dealt a mission for the Order, Remus and Moo were also given a similar task. I shrugged, if they weren't going to tell me why then I couldn't possibly hand over dangerous information like directions to the backdoor of the Department of Mysteries. Because I'm pretty sure that both Moo and Remus knew where the front door is, and how it's guarded day and night. Anyway this was the least of my worries, which got me back to the point of why I had been tuning out Moo's voice in the first place.

Sirius Black. And boy did I have it bad for him. This wasn't the last of my problems, and I desperately hoped it could have at least been the worst. Unfortuneately, the top spot went to Umbridge. That nasty old hag…

"What?" Moo cried out next to me. Had I been talking out loud?

"Umbridge" I muttered darkly in return. Moo, sensing my mood, patted my back soothingly. "That nasty piece of work, making me monitor Hogwarts like a hawk but Merlin's beard if only people knew, and I mean if they really knew who she's been talking to they'd throw her into a dung heap and then tie her to a stake, seriously" I said, turning to Moo who nodded understandingly like a good friend, "Anybody talking to Lucious Malfoy is considered evil in my books and then –"

"WHAT?!"

Sirius' shout had me nearly jumping out my skin so badly that I shook for several moments afterwards while he glared at me. I made a strangled sound in the my throat which really hadn't been one of my most attractive replies…but certainly not the worst.

"Umbridge has been talking to Malfoy and you didn't tell me?!" he seethed, standing up and then yanking me from the sofa and away from Moo's safe grasp. I shook my head slowly, not daring myself to open my mouth just in case I made another stupid noise. Really, what was all the fuss about?

"Right, we're off!" And then Sirius was dragging me towards the fireplace, and to be fair I wasn't putting up much of a fight.

"Err… where are we going?" I finally said, immediately regretting my courage when I saw Sirius' glare. This was a really good time to remind myself that he never committed those murders. But instead of replying he just threw me into the fireplace and I fell through straight onto my office floor. Before I even had a chance to breathe properly Sirius had grabbed me and pulled me up from off the carpet. It could have been a nice gesture if he hadn't gripped so hard on my arm.

"Hogwarts," he said roughly. It took me a long while to realise that even though Sirius wanted to go to Hogwarts, we were actually still in my office. And then everything slid into place and I groaned loudly, regretting the time I'd rather stupidly told Sirius that the fireplace in my office could take us _anywhere_, even Hogwarts without permission.

Suddenly I wasn't feeling quite so hot and bothered about Sirius Black. I really wanted to sock him one at the moment.

"I could lose my job," I hissed.

"Could we not argue please?" he pleaded, but the steely determination never left his eyes. My knee-jerk reaction to this was to indeed, start an argument. But the thought of being caught harbouring a mass-murderer in my office just because I'd been stupid enough to alert the auroras in the building by having a shouting match with said murderer shut me up.

Growling, I stomped over to the fireplace and flung a large amount of floo powder into the fireplace. "Happy now?"

"Very," he muttered and frustratingly took my arm again and yanked me unwillingly through another fireplace. With more grace this time round, I managed to stay on my feet.

"We're in McGonagalls office" he sighed incredulously next to me. There was a glazed look in his eyes and small smirk tugging at his lips. He looked every bit mischievous. I felt like shouting 'Excuse me, had the fire suddenly gone out?' Because I was dragged here against my will and now he's reminiscing about the good 'ole days? Well slap me silly, I'm going to start a fight –

However before I could even mutter a word of contempt, Sirius collected himself and once again I had this awful yanking, pulling feeling on my arm. We were running full pelt down the corridor, and right when I was in the middle of contemplating severing my own limb off so I could get a breather Sirius stopped suddenly and I ricocheted awkwardly off his shoulder. Slipping, my feet flew from beneath me but because Sirius still had a death-clamp grip on my arm he was hauling me to my feet before I managed to hit the ground.

"Can you hear that?" he whispered softly. Without really thinking, I was about to answer loudly with a brash 'No' when I heard it. The sharp _click click_ of heels on the stone floor. Except it was more of a _click- pause, click- click, pause, click._ My tongue suddenly became very dry and stomach did this funny flip flop motion whilst my heart pounded so violently against my ribcage I'm sure it would bruise.

"Shit, it's Umrbidge!" I'd recognize that heel clicking pattern anywhere. I simply dreaded hearing it at the weekends when she's made her weekly appearance at my office for a full report about fireplace activity. Really who would want to do that on a Saturday anyway?

Spurred into action by my words, both Sirius and I ran faster than we had been just moments before. Understanding that I was now actually fleeing for my life, I didn't need Sirius to drag me along by holding my arm. But I only noticed that he was still gripping me, quite painfully, when he stopped abruptly.

Merlin, we need somewhere to hide, not take in the scenery! Anything would do…

Sirius' sharp grey gaze did a quick scan of our surroundings. Moving swiftly, still grabbing me by the arm, yanked open the wooden door that had materialized magically on the wall to our left, thrust me inside and crowded in after me.

"Sirius" I began in a low whisper, "This is a _closet."_ The last word was mumbled into his robes, because, we were indeed in a closet, a very small, very, narrow, very _intimate_ space.

We stood in the dark, pressed uncomfortably together, Breathing each other's breath and trying not to look one another in the eye, while Umbridge passed us by in the hall outside.

The closet was cramped, stuffy, and barely wide enough to accommodate the breadth of Sirius' shoulders. As it was, he was standing with his right arm pressed against the door and his left shoulder buried in the assortment of old robes and brooms. I on the hand was pressed against his front and his left arm was around my waist. Our feet and legs were uncomfortably tangled due to the rapid, uncoordinated way in which we had shoved and squeezed ourselves into the small space. My feet were too far in front of me and the only thing keeping me standing upright, was Sirius' supporting arm. Of course, it was also keeping me close, very close, to the hard heat of his big body. And as tense and nervous as I was about the possibility of being discovered, his intimate proximity was something I just couldn't ignore. We were both taking slow, deep breaths, trying to calm their racing nerves and be quiet.

"A broom closet," I hissed into his robes, "that's best thing you could think of?" We were in the room of requirement and it could have changed into _anything._ But Sirius thought of a broom closet? It wouldn't have been so bad if I could actually stand up properly.

Every time Sirius shifted I got a mouthful of material, as my face was level with the centre of his chest. I felt oddly tiny and fragile, when confronted with the size and power of Sirius' body in the close room. Why hadn't I noticed this before? All I want to do is brush my hands against his skin, over his taught muscles…

Automatically shutting off those thoughts, I tried to ease back from him, tugging lightly on my right foot were it was caught between his. He immediately looked down at me and shook his head. I ignored him and tugged again, more insistently, and attempted to lean back away from him. It was only about half a foot but, at this point I _needed_ to put some distance, any distance, between us. I saw his jaw flex as he gritted his teeth, and I stifled a little gasp when he leaned down towards me, bending my body into the curve of his. I wanted to demand what the hell he thought he was doing but, I hadn't the breath or the sense to put my brain into gear, and besides, Umbridge might hear me. Clearly that was Sirius' worry as well, because he contorted his body uncomfortably until he could put his mouth right next to my ear. I tried not to shiver when his warm breath washed over the sensitive skin of my neck, _Merlin_… He spoke to me in a whisper so soft it was almost inaudible, despite the fact he was murmuring directly into my ear.

"Stop it. If you keep doing that we're going to overbalance and she's going to hear us" he admonished me. I gulped and nodded mutely. When he straightened up again I let out I sigh of relief.

Just when I thought I was going to scream from the strain of remaining tense and silent in the hot, uncomfortable confines of the closet, trapped between the wall and Sirius, I heard Umbridge's heels finally walk away. When all was silent I jerked back sharply from Sirius, banging into the wall as I did so.

"Fuck" he snarled, batting at the brooms that were stabbing him in the neck.

"Can you reach behind me and get the door? I don't wanna try to turn around in here" he said, eyeing the brooms and rubbing his throat.

Muttering under my breath about muscles and material I did as he asked, reaching my arm around his lean waist and running my fingers over the wood of the old door to find the handle.

_At least this will all be over in a __minute; _I comforted myself as I stretched further, and resting my face against Sirius' chest so that I could sweep my arm out as far as it would go. Instantly I tried to pretend that the flex and roll of muscle under my cheek didn't make my mouth dry. My fingers met nothing but the smooth, satin texture of the polished oak.

Disbelievingly, I swept my hand back and forth and then up and down with growing alarm. No, no, no..

"What's taking so long?!" Sirius demanded.

I pulled back to look at him, shock and dismay clear of my face.

"There's no handle on the inside!" I cried.

"What?" snapped Sirius, shoving aside the brooms and turning jerkily in the small space so he could face the door. Hissing in irritation he yanked out my wand from my pocket and aimed it at the wood.

We both tumbled out of the closet, me flat on my back and Sirius falling spread eagled on top of me. He landed with an 'oomphf' and my elbows cracked painfully against the hard stone floor. I must have lost the connection to my brain – which isn't always I bad thing – because I just laid there, with Sirius Black on top. But to be fair, he hadn't moved either…and his weight had been a surprisingly soft, comfortable and completely contrasted with the cold floor at my back that I didn't really want him to move. Then I realized that he really wasn't moving –

"You smell so nice," I heard him say softly, his breath tickling the sensitive skin on my neck. I sighed, relief washing over me like the sun's warm rays when he spoke. And not just because he said something nice, I was glad to be informed of his alive-ness too, for a lack of a bet word. My arm was going numb now, and I still didn't mind his weight on top of it.

"I think you've hit your head," I heard myself say in a similar soft, whispering voice. All I got as a reply was this odd gurgling sound, which kinda ruined the moment. Not that I'd call being chased by Umbridge to the point where you have to hide in a tiny broom closet, and then hurl yourself out of it a romantic moment. But it felt nice. And sure as hell had been more interesting than anything Nick had ever done for me.

Shocked that I had even thought about my ex-boyfriend and I felt a red, hot heat climb up body and then to my face. I needed air desperately and Sirius wasn't helping.

"You feel like your on fire," he supplied unhelpfully, looking up from the crook of my neck. "You look a bit peaky, you alright?" I wished he'd stick his face back into my shoulder because I'd rather not let him see me embarrassed.

"Well what do we have here?"

At the sound of somebody else's voice I jerked away from Sirius so fast it felt like I had been electrocuted. And from the way that my head felt light and fuzzy I may have actually been stung by a spark. Stumbling I made it to my feet to meet the bright blue gaze of Albus Dumbledore. Not sure what to say at the old man who was now smiling breezily like he had just caught a pair of students snogging in a broom cupboard, I just let my mouth hang wide open giving my best impression of an asphyxiated trout.

Gathering my wits, albeit very slowly, I did the only thing I could think of and turned round to face Sirius and very calmly asked for my wand back.


	6. Chapter 6 Going it Alone

**CHAPTER SIX - GOING IT ALONE**

Walking behind Albus Dumbledore heading towards his office gave me the distinct feeling that I was about to be told off. It had been almost ten years since I last walked the stone floors of Hogwarts, but the horrible feeling was just as fresh as it had been the first time I got caught breaking the rules. Moo had a penchant for rule-breaking, and as her best friend I had been obligated to fulfil my duty as her partner in crime, not that it had taken much persuading. By all means, I wasn't a naughty child, I just knew enough to know what being told off by the Headmaster felt like. And let me tell you, it's worse than McGonagall's shouting, Dumbledore knew just how to apply the right tone of voice to make you feel _truly_ guilty about what you had done.

However, both Sirius and I were adults and if we wanted to fall in a tangled heap on the floor then who could tell us off? Besides causing trouble required planning and I certainly hadn't planned on falling out of a broom cupboard that Sirius Black thought up as we fled from Umbridge. And no way was I going to take the blame for it – I hadn't even wanted to come to Hogwarts in the first place, it had been Sirius dragging me along like a rag doll in the hallway. So by the time we arrived inside Dumbledore's office, the Headmaster sat behind his desk and Sirius and I plonking ourselves in chairs opposite him, I had decided to blame this entirely on Sirius.

Looking at us expectantly, Albus had leaned back in his chair and only moved to pop a chocolate frog in his mouth. He was waiting for one of us to start explaining. Glancing sideward and catching Sirius beginning to open his mouth, the panic rose in my throat, so I cut across him before he said a single word.

"It's all his fault!" I blurted out, cringing at just how childish I sounded. But I didn't care. "He's the one who dragged me here Professor, I've probably got the bruises to prove it" I said waving my arm about, the one limb Sirius had grabbed on to in his haste to get to Hogwarts. "And I've probably lost my job too," I tacked on for extra emphasis.

"What's wrong with you Paisley?" Black shouted accusingly. I didn't have his Gryffindor courage so I shrank back into the chair fuming, but not giving up, "If you had told me earlier about Umbridge and Malfoy then we wouldn't be sneaking around the castle and falling out of broom cupboards!"

"Sneaking!" I cried incredulously. "Is that what we were doing? Because to me it sure as hell felt like I was running for my life back there. And if you weren't stupid enough to start dreaming about a broom cupboard then maybe we wouldn't have fallen out of one!"

My feelings for Sirius Black seemed to only ever run hot or cold, never between. And right now they were icy cold. His face was thunderous and somehow still managed to be incredibly attractive, but nevermind about that –

"Not to interrupt, Mr Black and Miss Paisley, I can see that you're both getting along swimmingly, however I did hear something about Ms Umbridge that perhaps you would like to tell me?"

Pointedly, Sirius gave me a look that said it was now my responsibility to tell Dumbledore about what I had discovered about Doleres Umbridge's fireplace. Or rather what she had been using it for. Sighing I apologised quickly to Albus, making a point not to look at Sirius while I said this hoping he'd understand that under no circumstances was I apologising to him, and continued to tell the Headmaster that Umbridge is using her fireplace to communicate with another that Lucious Malfoy owned.

"Of course, she might not actually be talking to Mr Malfoy, somebody could just be using his fireplace to communicate with her – might be Santa Clause for all I know" I added on as an afterthought.

"And there is no way to tell who was using the fireplace at the time?" he asked.

I shook my head, "No, that's an invasion of privacy."

"Bollocks!" I heard Sirius say from beside me. I didn't look at him for fear of if I did, I'd hex him. Through gritted teeth I said, "I didn't say it was impossible to find out who she might be talking to, just illegal" I put emphasis on the last word. Although obviously trivial matters such as the law didn't seem to bother the infamous Sirius Black. And according to Albus Dumbledore's next words, I reckoned the Headmaster didn't care for them either.

"Allison, would you be able to find out who she's been talking to?" I gulped, but then he added, "It's important for the Order."

Sirius let out a triumphant 'HA!', letting me know that he had been right to drag to me Hogwarts. It also felt like goading, like I wouldn't actually go ahead and invade somebody's privacy, even if it was Malfoy's.

"It is possible that I could -" I began.

"Well then that's settled. You'll receive the information and we'll go from there."

Okay, no pressure. None at all. All Albus Dumbledore wants you to do is break a few laws, how hard can it be? You're already harbouring mass-murdering criminals in your lounge, might as well get yourself chucked into Askaban while you're at it. Could even take tips from Sirius on how to escape…Perfect, what better way to spend my weekend!

Only I just remembered I'm supposed to be with the family for lunch tomorrow. I guess it would have to wait – the law breaking, not the lunch. I'm not even lying about having to see the family; I really do have to go visit them. My Mum would have my head if I didn't.

Dumbledore offered to let us use his fireplace to get back to my place and reluctantly I trudged through the flames and into my lounge and threw myself into the spare armchair. Both Remus and Moo were sitting comfortably on the sofa, sitting closely together. Moo had a quill and parchment out writing, and Remus was simply relaxing reading a book. They looked cosy. Just wished it wasn't my sofa they were doing the 'cosy-ing' on.

"Who are you writing to Moo?" I asked just as Sirius came through my fireplace. He went straight out of the room and moments later I could hear him the clanking of dishes in the kitchen. He treated my house like it was his own, and I was now actually buying food for two whenever I went shopping just in case Sirius decided he preferred to eat at mine instead of Grimmauld Place in the evenings. Give it a few more weeks and I'm sure he'll be round for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Another few months he might even be in the spare room. I'm such a pushover.

"Your Mum," Moo supplied. I gave her a quizzical look and she added, "I'm asking her if Remus can come for dinner. Don't think she'll say no, do you?"

My eyebrows shot up. Moo and Remus were getting along better than expected. I liked Remus, and I'm glad Moo finally took and interest in a decent man instead of the pompous gits she normally dates. "Nah, you know what she's like," I said, "the more the merrier!"

"Think Sirius could join us?" she asked.

I pretended to think about what my mother would say. Truthfully, she wouldn't mind – she'd have half the world to dinner if she could. Although Sirius Black is a known murderer, somehow I doubt Mum would mind. My Dad on the other hand would be none the wiser, he never read the _Daily Prophet_ so it was unlikely he'd recognise Sirius from his face. No, I was definitely more worried about Sirius meeting my family. Not just my parents but my sisters too.

"I don't see why not," I said slowly, "but shouldn't we ask Sirius first?"

"Ask me what?" he said from the doorway, a mug of coffee in one hand and a biscuit in the other. Dammit, I thought I'd hidden those!

"Oh Alley and I always go to the Paisley's for lunch at the weekend, Remus said he'd join us and we wanted to know if you'll come to?"

Shrugging non-commitally Sirius sat down in another armchair and asked, "Would your Mum mind having someone like…me for dinner?"

"You haven't met my mother," I muttered darkly.

"Great" said Moo cheerfully, getting up, "I'll just send this letter then. Mind if I use Athena?"

I nodded, thinking about my Eagle Owl. I had named her Athena after the Greek goddess of wisdom, which had been a mistake because she really was a little stupid at times. If I didn't know better I'd say my owl had been sneaking down to the kitchen and drinking the Firewhisky. Sometimes she just acted so drunk. Then I'd remember that Athena is an owl, she didn't even have hands to open the cupboards.

I stood up and muttered to the guys that I was going upstairs to get changed, but I doubt they heard me as I followed Moo out the door. Slowly I crept up the stairs before wandering down the hallway past the two guest rooms and finally my room. Pushing open the door and padding softly across the carpet and I began to dig out my sweats and a large t-shirt. I didn't own pyjamas. Turning and catching a short glance in the full-length mirror I sighed at the sight of myself.

Not that I didn't like the way I looked, I just didn't spend time thinking about it. Like my mother, I had inherited the curvy gene. My two older sisters were scrawny, straight up and down like beanpoles. I filled out in all the right places, importantly in the chest and buttocks area. Unfortunately my hips were huge too which I didn't like. The one body part that I am proud of are my metre-long legs, which I showed off every summer. It was hard trying to find muggle clothes that fit right, and witch's robes either drowned me or made me look fat.

After changing I made my way back downstairs to find that my mother had already written back and Athena was nibbling affectionately on Sirius' fingers as he tried to pat her. Traitor, I thought, eyeing the bird angrily.

"What did she say?" I asked, flopping back down in the armchair. Moo unfolded the parchment and read the words aloud.

"Both Remus and Sirius are welcome to come. Anna wants to know if they'll be attending the wedding too? Let her know so she can sort out the seating plan."

"I hate this Wedding business, it's all Anna ever talks about," I grumbled, angry that my Mum was happy to allow Sirius to join lunch.

"Don't be such a party-pooper Alley; your Mum and Anna are just excited." Moo assured me. But I didn't care. Why on earth was Mum inviting a mass murderer and Remus to the wedding?

"She also wants to know if you've got a dress for the Malfoy's Annual Masquerade ball?"

At the mention of Malfoy's name both Sirius and I snapped our heads towards Moo. Athena kept nibbling at Sirius' fingers but he didn't seem to notice anymore. The owl got annoyed by the sudden lack of attention and left the room.

I always automatically tensed up at the sound of the word 'ball', fancy formal occasions weren't my thing, but this time my heart hammered and I had a horrible sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. This time next week I'll be conversing with the enemy. I groaned.

"I reckon the ball would be a great opportunity to check out the Manor to see what Malfoy's up to," Remus supplied, adding that Sirius had told them everything about what had happened at Hogwarts. I gave Sirius a sharp look, and he shrugged in response. I hoped he hadn't mentioned the broom cupboard.

"It's a great idea Remus, but-" I chewed on my bottom lip nervously, "isn't a bit, well, dangerous? My whole family is going to be there, they could get hurt if I get caught." It's ball, how much snooping could I do without Malfoy noticing? Besides the whole Manor would be filled top to bottom with purebloods that supported what Voldemort is doing. We, the Paisley family, only ever showed our faces to formal events to ensure our own safety. If we appeared to be supporters, then we weren't going to be attacked. All we had to do was keep quiet about our 'muggle loving' ways. Me sneaking around definitely counted as dangerous.

"Sirius could join you," Remus said after thinking for a while, "It's a masquerade ball right? Nobody would know it's him under the mask."

Sirius complained loudly about having to attend a ball filled with stuffy, uptight purebloods. Oddly, considering I was supposed to be angry with him, I found myself agreeing with Sirius that he shouldn't have to attend. When I voiced this, Remus looked at me questioningly and Moo rolled her eyes.

"Look, Sirius isn't going to be very useful anyway," the said man snorted loudly but I ignored him, "He hasn't even got a wand! Besides, what if somebody recognised him?" I said, putting the final nail in the coffin. "I'd be better off on my own."

"What about having him there as moral support? I'm sure Sirius would love to get out of Grimmauld for a few hours." Moo suggested. Shaking my head I explained that my entire family would be there to be able to give me moral support.

"Do I have a say in this?" Sirius asked.

Moo rounded on him, "Okay then Sirius, would you like to go to the ball with Alley?"

"If Alley wants me there, I'll go." Sirius stared at me questioningly, his grey eyes unreadable. I shook my head. I didn't need Sirius Black to protect me. "Then it's sorted. Alley goes alone." He lifted himself off the chair and promptly left the room through the fireplace.

As I watched his retreating back I knew I had made the right choice. I'd been to loads of balls before, and I certainly didn't need any protection or an escort.


	7. Chapter 7 What would the Greeks say

**CHAPTER SEVEN - WHAT WOULD THE GREEKS SAY**

"On a scale of 10 to 10, how hot do I look right now?" he wriggled his eyebrows suggestively. I tried not to pay attention - or jump his bones - as I said sweetly, "Is get the hell away from me before I hex you a choice?"

The man before me seemed to have had an injection of confidence over night and had completely worked himself up in excitement at his day trip out of Grimmauld Place. Unfortunately his current arrogance had begun to annoy me, and I half thought to leave Sirius Black behind but my Mother would have made me retrieve the prat if I turned up to dinner without him.

He was currently preening himself in one of the long mirrors at Grimmauld Place, and even in my now foul mood I had to admit he had cleaned up nicely.

"Look, just try and behave," I pleaded as Sirius just nodded absently, still looking at himself in the mirror, smoothing any wrinkles out of his expensive robes.

"Are you listening to me Black?" Again he just nodded, not looking at me.

"Oi!" I shouted loudly, finally getting his attention. He stared at me, unimpressed that I had just interrupted his grooming.

"Please Sirius, for the love of Merlin, try to behave and act normal at dinner. Don't swear in front of my mother, do remember your manners," I studied him as he tried to sneak a last look in the mirror, "Don't hit on any of my sisters-"

"I wasn't planning to." He said looking innocent. I didn't know whether to sigh in relief or be insulted on behalf of my sisters, what's wrong with them? They weren't ugly…then again, I'm biased.

"Doesn't matter," I said waving him off, "And on that note don't insult me or family." I knew my family were above and beyond weird, and large and loud – they were the complete opposite to the Blacks, and I'd hoped they could be on _their_ best behaviour too. There could be nothing worse than having my kooky family embarrass themselves in front of the man I'm having a mild fancy to.

Okay, a _strong_ fancy to when he's nice.

Moo promised me her and Remus would meet us at my parent's house. This just left me to get Black there on time and without the neighbours noticing.

Eventually I managed to drag him away from the mirrors, ("Hey, I was looking in that!") and we apparated safely to my parents' kitchen. The first thing I noticed was the smell, and instantly my mouth watered. Next to me Sirius' stomach growled hungrily as a short, petite woman bustled into view and enveloped me in a hug whilst patting my head.

"Alley, are you eating enough? You're getting skinny!" she reprimanded. Good, I thought, I could do with being skinny.

"This must be Sirius Black," she said eyeing him. I nodded and much to Sirius' surprise my Mum also pulled him into a hug. She tried to pat him on the head too, but couldn't reach and settled for patting him awkwardly on the shoulder. She finally let go and Sirius' face was a picture indeed. He looked completely shocked, not that my Mum had noticed.

"Call me Bea," she said to him, "I take it you know this Remus fellow, what a lovely man!" she prattled on. Sirius just stood and nodded dumbly in reply, words failing him at my mother's response to a man that had been convicted to murder. I too wondered where this enthusiastic welcome came from, but figured Moo must have filled her in on all the details. I didn't have much time to think about it as another figure came gliding into the kitchen. I groaned as I caught sight at my sister.

Lola, the second eldest Paisley sister, can only be described as special. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. She was wearing long, pale green robes, and had a ring of pink flowers nestled in her brown hair. Matching her outfit were all kinds of bracelets, necklaces and beads with an extensive range of pendants that covered anything from a bird to a quill and jangled with every move. The most unnerving thing about Lola however was her expression; it always remained dreamy and far-away like she never really paid attention to reality. She was also a firm believer in old magic – the kind that involved rituals, sacrifices and no wands.

"There's a tense, sexual aura this room," she whispered huskily, not really speaking to anybody in particular. I felt a small blush of embarrassment creep up my neck, and hoped that Sirius hadn't heard her. However both him and Mum had stopped talking and there was no doubt he could hear her. Lola turned her gaze towards Mum, examining her before saying, "You don't fancy him do you?"

The tips of Mum's ears were tinged with pink as she scolded Lola for bringing her namby-pamby magic nonsense into the house. But as Remus and Moo joined us from the hallway all Lola said was, "Hm, I can feel it more now. It's definitely there." Then she gracefully sashayed out of the kitchen. I really didn't know where she got it from.

Suddenly there was a loud, feminine shriek from upstairs and Mum ran off in search of the damsel in distress. I coughed loudly and finally looked at Sirius, who was grinning broadly. He elbowed me jokingly in the ribs, "Your Mum has got the hots for me" he said winking. Groaning, I didn't feel the need to correct him that perhaps it was _my_ aura that Lola was talking about.

"I take it you've already met my family Remus?" I asked, hoping to forget about what Lola had just said.

"Oh yeah," he said, bouncing on the balls of his feet, "The most charming bunch of people I've ever met. You and your sisters are nothing alike!"

"Tell me about it – just wait until you meet the rest of the family, Aunts, Uncles, Grannies and all that, it's mayhem."

Just then Mum came bustling back into the room looking flustered, "Alley have you seen Kitty?" I shook my head, "She's charmed her sister's wedding dress pink. You wouldn't happen to know how to get it white again would you?" Still shaking my head, Moo offered to fix the wedding dress and went off looking for damn thing.

"Thank you Moila, darling!" Mum called out after her. "I don't know what has gotten into that girl, but Kitty is causing all kinds of trouble. Did you know she's charmed some canaries to sing around David's head?" I wanted to laugh, but remained straight faced, "If only she'd put that much effort in her school work..." And once again Mum left the kitchen still muttering, no doubt looking for Kitty, the youngest of the Paisley family. David is Anna's fiancé, and he and Kitty very rarely saw eye to eye. And Anna is the eldest of the four Paisley sisters, the most spoilt of us all. It was probably her shrieking upstairs.

By the time dinner was ready and we had all been managed to shuffle ourselves into a seat at the dinning table, David was still sporting a few canaries circling around his head. The charm was wearing off, and they sang out of tune. It seemed nobody had been able to get rid of them. I knew that they couldn't – I had made that spell up myself and taught it to Kitty a few months back. I have yet to sort out a counter-charm for it.

Anna had put her long, dark hair into a pony-tail and was looking severely angry, casting loathing glances at Kitty, who seemed to be pointedly ignoring her and didn't seem all that bothered by the trouble she'd caused. Apart from this tense exchange, and more aura readings from Lola, dinner had been a lovely affair. Even Black enjoyed himself and was quickly becoming my Dad's new best friend as they chatted away about Quidditch. He even outshone David, much to Kitty's pleasure.

"Alley dear, have you found a dress for the Malfoy's ball?" Mum asked me from across the table. Sirius only stopped talking for a second but it was enough to make me realise he was now listening to our conversation. He continued to talk to my Dad, smoothing over his little blip.

"Yes," I replied, but my Mum was looking at me wanting to know more, "its blue" I supplied finally. She didn't look surprised, I always wore a variation of blue or bronze – they were my house colours. I stood out in a sea of green and silver, but I didn't mind so much. Kitty also took this approach and always wore red proudly. The rest of the family were Hufflepuffs, and Anna had always complained loudly that yellow never suited her. What dress Lola decided to show up in was anyone's guess.

"You always wear blue Allison," she complained, but Dad cut across, "Now remember girls, when we're at his ball, whether you're wearing blue, red, or rainbow dresses," he eyed Lola warily as he said this, "please for the love Merlin pretend we are fanatical pureblood, You-Know-Who supporters. That's all I ask."

Kitty made a move the open her mouth to retaliate, but I kicked her swiftly under the table and she hissed, glaring at me. Shrugging, I turned to Dad and said "Sure, no problem. I'll just take a few tips from this git and I'll be well on my way to Pureblood royalty." I jabbed my thumb in Sirius' direction. He didn't look pleased at being referred to as pureblood royalty. The Noble House of Black was still looked upon as one of the greatest pureblood families.

"Alley!" my mum exclaimed, "be nice or don't speak at all." Satisfied with my mother's telling off, Sirius smirked and then turned back to my father. As he did this his elbow briefly rubbed against mine and I stiffened immediately, and tried to edge away from him. I caught Lola's eye, she was looking directly at us, her wistful gaze sweeping over our elbows. Her mouth moved but I couldn't hear what she way saying. Worried and aching to put myself next to her at the table, I leaned closer to try and catch the last of her sentence.

"Chemistry…tension…definitely got the hots for him…just a little roll or jump…she needs an apple thrown at her, what would the Greeks say."

Shocked, I sat back and decided my sister really has lost her mind. I had a vague idea as to what she was mumbling about, but the last part was truly lost on me. I had an urgent, tempting need to have canaries sing around her head too - but I feared the birds would only add to the faraway, day-dreaming expression that was her entire appearance.

Beside me, Moo and Remus were perfectly comfortable with each other. Moo often asked Anna how the wedding plans were going and Remus made a bang up job of looking interested. Every so often, out of the corner of my eye I saw them brush hands at the table – Moo smiled every time.

Sighing and then turning away, I noticed Sirius had no stopped talking to Dad (who was now being questioned by David about his contacts at the Ministry, "Just my little Ravenclaw!") and was looking pointedly at me.

"What?" I said, noticing him. He shrugged and went back to stabbing the vegetables on his plate. I gave him a quick poke with my own cutlery, and he turned back to face me.

"You've got a great family," he smiled. All trace of arrogance had disappeared and I knew he wasn't taking the piss, despite Lola now trying to persuade Mum to keep garlic in her pockets to ward off bad people. ("Smelling like garlic would put anybody off" grumbled Kitty). He sounded sincere, and despite smiling his eyes remained sad

Trying to lighten the mood, "You never know my Mum might try and adopt you, no sons you see," I joked. "You'd be a Paisley forever, and related to that." I pointed at Lola.

"Better than being Black" he supposed, shovelling food into his mouth. He had a point. I'd take Lola over the portrait of Black's mother any day.

"Hey Alley!" Kitty shouted from the other end of the table, interrupting our first real conversation without fighting. Or me going weak at the knees. Or hexing each other. Judging by Sirius' sudden concentration and attention on his plate, he wasn't comfortable talking about his family.

"What!?" I yelled back, gaining a glare from Mum. She didn't say anything though.

"Know anything about love potions?" she snickered. Perhaps somebody had heard Lola talking about apples.

"Yeah, make sure you've got an antidote on hand," I threatened my youngest sister. I knew she wasn't particularly talented at potions, and probably wouldn't notice if I slipped a little love potion into her pumpkin juice. Kitty didn't let my warning voice faze her though.

"Whatever," she blew off, "You gonna help me with my essay or what smarty-pants?"

"Kitty, I won't have any name calling at this table!" Mum shouted, but nobody heard her as I was already replying to Kitty's question.

"Alright thicko, what'd you do? Fall asleep again in lessons?"

"ALISON!" Mum screamed, "No – name- calling!" she wagged her finger at me between each word. It would have been scary if I was still five years old, but Moo was giggling into her plate next to me and her laughter was contagious. I barely managed to keep myself from grinning, let alone look sorry for calling my baby sister stupid.

Kitty smiled triumphantly, and I rolled my eyes as Mum looked away, muttering about guests and manners vehemently under her breath. I snorted, and doubted highly that Sirius and Remus were bothered by our shouting across the table. Anna looked a little a little disgusted at out behaviour, but that's probably because David was present. Just when I had managed to calm myself down, Lola opened her big, fat mouth.

"Oooh I'm sensing a humorous atmosphere." She giggled, as though she was being tickled. "I think people are laughing at you Mum."

Sirius let out a loud bark-like laugh, and elbowed me in the ribs, "Mental that one." I stared as the laughter danced in his eyes. He winked and then muttered, "I've really gotta get myself a Paisley sister."


	8. Chapter 8 Can you keep a secret?

**CHAPTER EIGHT – CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?**

My wand hand was busy directing dirty plates into the sink, and then clean ones back into the cupboards when Dad emerged from the dining room with the remaining leftover plates.

"So Alley Kat, you've got some interesting friends."

I stopped concentrating on the dishes and left my wand waving aimlessly at different parts of the kitchen trying to clean, but not very well. My Dad's expression was perceptive, and maybe I had been wrong to think he'd never heard of Sirius Black. It had been a stupid assumption.

"All this time we've waited for you to bring back somebody other than Moila to the house and you choose a werewolf and a mass murderer?"

I wanted to argue and explain that it had been Moo's idea to invite them, that I'd never even let the thought cross my mind.

"Dad, you know that Sirius never murdered anybody right?"

He nodded and explained that Moo had filled both him and my mother in on the details. "But what is my baby girl up to hm? Something is going on Alley, and I don't like it."

I wasn't the baby of the bunch anymore, but I had always been closer to Dad. I could trust him all the way. Realising that my wand was now directing dishes out of the kitchen I quit attempting to clean and sighed, putting my wand away.

"Alison Paisley, I'm your father. I need to know your safe." The worried tone in his voice had me cracked and I could feel the words bubble and burn inside my throat before escaping audibly.

"I'm just finally doing something important with my life Dad. Dumbledore asked me to do this. Of all the witches and wizards at his disposal, he chose me."

Dad pulled me into a firm hug, and my nose squished into his chest. Momentarily I wished I was taller.

"That doesn't sound very safe to me."

"Honestly Dad, I'm fine. I've got Moo watching out for me. I'm not doing this alone, Sirius is helping too." His nose wrinkled disapprovingly when I mentioned Sirius, "I'm just keeping a keen eye and sharp ear on the Ministry at the moment, that's all." And trying to track down Peter Pettigrew…

"You're spying for Dumbledore." Dad stated bluntly. I groaned, as he made it sound so much worse than it really was.

Upstairs a loud thump right above the kitchen shook the light fixtures violently, and both of us looked upwards before catching each other's humorous expressions.

"What have I done to deserve four such enigmatic daughters?"

"Probably nothing. You might want to check out Mum's ancestry though." I quipped. Dad laughed gruffly, ruffling my hair affectionately before leaving to storm upstairs.

I was still thinking about my Dad's worrying the next day at the office. Except I had bigger fish to fry, so to speak.

My hands were shaking uncontrollably, a piece of parchment clasped tightly in my hand. I couldn't believe it. Terrified and walking abnormally fast, I kept glancing back over my shoulder to see if anybody had seen me. I desperately needed to get back to my office. Rounding the corner I could see Mary sat at her desk, owls littering her own office space. I slowed down, but my heart continued to thump wildly in my chest. Hoping that I appeared normal, and plastering a confident smile on my face I waved at Mary, acknowledging her before throwing myself through my office door into the safety of the room.

I still can't believe it. I had just stolen personal information about who has been using the Malfoy's fireplace to contact Dolores Umbridge at Hogwarts. I leaned against the back of the smooth door and breathed deeply. Waiting until the shaking stopped, and then striding over to my desk I unfolded the parchment and sat down, steadying myself.

Merlin, this is illegal!

Finally I looked down and began to read. Why Umbridge was talking to Malfoy so often I didn't know, but she wasn't talking to anybody else. I sighed, a faint warmth of relief tingling at the edges of my mind. I flipped over the parchment, now scanning the names of witches and wizards Malfoy had been contacting. The further I read, the more my relaxed feeling left, my fingertips cold against the parchment. Some of the names I read definitely weren't wholesome wizards or witches – you'd be hard pressed to describe them as 'nice'. And there, right at the bottom of page there was a name that made my heart leap into my throat, and causing my stomach to make odd squelching and uncomfortable movements. I blinked twice, then shook my head. This couldn't be right.

I left my desk and poked my head outside my office. "M-Mary?" I called, and she looked up from her desk clearly agitated by my interruption, "I've got to leave the office for a bit. It's an emergency." She nodded and grudgingly assured me she'd hold the fort. Quickly I swung round and grabbing a fistful of floor powder I swept into the fireplace and said, "Number twelve, Grimmauld Place."

Abruptly, I fell flat on my face. My jaw hit the ground painfully as my legs and robes became tangled in the fireplace's grate. Judging by the whoosh of dust up my nostrils, I knew I had made it through the other side. How I fell over was another matter.

"Alley Kat, what a pleasure!" Sirius grinned, stepping forward from the middle of the room and stretching out his hand to help me up. I growled at his fingers, and despite the pain in my jaw I noticed he appeared slightly nervous, his charming smile not reaching his grey eyes. Sirius pulled me up to my feet in one swift display of macho strength.

"Well Black, we have a major problem." I announced, and Sirius inspected my dusty robes. "I did what Dumbledore asked and stole the –" I stopped. He had reached forward and was so close I could smell him. Sirius began patting at my robes. "Err, what are you doing Sirius?" I asked, confused.

"You're a mess." He stated. And then I realised he was brushing the dust off my robes. Uncomfortable in this new situation I tried to get Sirius to stop by pushing his arms away, but he was relentless and stubborn. When he began lightly brushing at the material covering my thighs I nearly forgot to breathe.

"Uh, anyway" I started again, trying to ignore Sirius' hands, "Umbridge is clean, but Malfoy..." I couldn't think, he was bent over, rubbing my knees. Merlin, will he stop? Stepping away, Sirius just followed and continued on his task loyally.

"Merlin Sirius, just read the damn list would you?!" I said impatiently, thrusting the parchment roughly into his face. The distraction was enough to remove his hands from my thighs.

Sirius frowned the further the names went down the list.

"And check out the name on the very bottom." I advised, breathing slowly trying to calm myself and doing a very poor job of ignoring the tingling sensation Sirius had left wherever his hands had been.

Sirius flipped over the parchment, his eye searching and scanning the bottom of the page.

But I wasn't paying any attention to him anymore. My mind recalled the warmth and firmness of his chest that day we hid in a broom cupboard. And now the funny feeling in my stomach.

Fancy him much?

Sirius coughed loudly jerking me back to reality. Annoyed I glared at him, but I didn't really mean it.

"You looked a bit like Lola then," he said tilting his head to one side as if trying recapture the expression that had been on my face previously. "All day-dreamy and far away. Except you kept biting your lip."

Biting my bottom lip had been nicknamed by Moo as my 'thinking face' – I always did it unconsciously when I concentrated a little bit too hard.

"Right, whatever" I tried to change the subject, "you read that entire list yet?"

Sirius broke into a mischievous smile, "Oh yes. Now we're getting somewhere."

"Good, because I'm probably going to get the sack any day soon."


End file.
